WasteDive Asks: Are Solar Panels the Next CRT Recycling Problem?

 Our small Vermont company gets 2 big stories in July.

First, Recycling International is publishing a 2 page interview with Yours Truly, whose small Vermont Recycling Company has catapulted to #36 on the Magazine's list of Notable Recyclers worldwide (and that's not just "e-waste").

Do we belong on a list that includes Robin Weiner of ISRI at #15, or author Adam Minter at #6?

My only explanation is ironic - compared to similar lists a decade ago, Recycling International now realizes there are hundreds of well-managed recycling companies in places like Ghana, India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore.  After reading their interview of me, I realized the irony that a) thanks to us (and this blog), the list is much harder for a white American to get onto, and b) we are deliciously placed several rows above Basel Action Network (screenshot below), which tried to get me labelled as a pariah after being called out for profiling Joe "Hurricane" Benson as a "primitive recycler" (rather than a 25 year expert at reuse export) based on his nationality.

But before I "bury" the lead about solar panel recycling ---  it's been my honor to put together an esteemed panel on how Solar Panel Reuse in Emerging Markets may offer the same solutions as it offered SVGA computer monitors 20 years ago... Register at NERC.org for a front row on Zoom, as I participate with Emmanual Nyalete of Ghana, Lennart Banaszak of Germany, and Good Point Recycling's very own Solar Nerd Trevor de Young (who's trailer home is almost completely "off grid" with salvaged solar panels - including some deliberately smashed by the solar de-installers in an botched "end of life" crime).

(see hammer marks, which rendered this panel 50% efficient. If it is relocated to Ghana, the 50% efficient panel will produce more KWH - due to abundant sunlight - than it produced in Vermont before it was "sabotaged" to prevent reuse).

Katie Pyzyk's interview in WasteDive explores our pilot program for solar panel reuse... and finds parallels to the CRT Reuse concerns that resulted in California SB20 and piles of shredded leaded CRT cullet across the West.

Is the UNU E-waste Research Program Ever Going to Learn?

 I'm a little behind in editing and posting a number of draft blogs, but just sent this email to a university professor who shared a Grist article with me.

The Grist article is not that bad. But listen as I go on a tear of the UNU program (source of data in the Grist article). I used to have a friendly relationship with the UNU e-waste program. But they are fricking racists, and it's time to drop the mic on uncle bubba.

When I meet with the UNU boys (who are convincingly nice) I can smell the ruffled feathers. But they doubled down specifically on Joseph "Hurricane" Benson, and when proven completely wrong, hid their BS 80% press release statistic (switching from "primitively managed" to "undocumented" means "we didn't know what we were talking about when we said primitively managed but we don't want to retract our 80% BS statements in the past used to sentence the guy we applauded the arrest and sentencing of, so we use "informal sector" to imply that black techs are to be mistrusted")

Now that I have our attention, I share what I really think via the email below. Wake up, UNU. Every Univesity researcher who read you study has discredited it as Criminal Negligence. The fact that it's still being cited by environmental publications like Grist just show you to be the Thomas Midgely of surplus electronics management.